


Jenny's Scarf

by tigerbright



Category: Jenny and the Cat Club - Esther Averill
Genre: Canon Compliant, Children's Literature, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 18:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2822291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigerbright/pseuds/tigerbright
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <cite>Captain Tinker, who was an old sailor, liked to make things and many years ago had learned to knit. He knitted a woolen scarf for Jenny -- a bright red woolen scarf to go with her black fur and yellow eyes.</cite>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jenny's Scarf

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DWEmma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DWEmma/gifts).



> When I saw that this fandom had been requested, I promptly borrowed the books from my niece. When it wasn't assigned to me, I asked her to give me a prompt. She asked me why Captain Tinker had made Jenny a scarf.
> 
> When all of the prompts were released, I realized that I could use your prompt as a frame.

One day, while visiting Captain Tinker's cats, Pickles suggested to Jenny that perhaps Captain Tinker and Mrs. Goodkind should become better friends.

Jenny looked at him puzzledly. "They are already great friends," said she. "They have tea together and secretly watch us through the window together."

"But don't you think they could be... BETTER FRIENDS?" insisted Pickles. He sighed.

"He means like Arabella and Antonio," explained Checkers, popping his head up from behind the sofa.

"Yes, he thinks that they are in LOOOOOOVE," added Edward.

Jenny and her brothers dissolved in kitty giggles.

"Humans are very different from us," declared Jenny. "Being matchmakers would be silly."

Pickles sighed. "They each live alone," said he. "And they are both neat and tidy and kind. They would not mess up each other's houses."

"They both have special things that go in very special places," Jenny pointed out. "Where does Mrs. Goodkind put her plates?"

"Her pretty china with the roses and forget-me-nots goes up in the glass case I can't get into," Pickles said at once.

"Because you like to play with it and broke one of her cups once," Jenny pointed out. "Even Checkers has never managed to do that with Captain Tinker's pretty china with the blue windmills."

"I think that Mrs. Goodkind likes boisterous cats and Captain Tinker likes quiet cats," Pickles mused.

"Mrs. Goodkind likes LOTS of cats," Edward pointed out.

"Captain Tinker is very good with shy cats especially," Checkers agreed. "Did Jenny ever tell you the story of her scarf?"

If cats ever blushed, Jenny would have. Her tail twitched at the end and she looked very hard at Checkers.

He whispered, "We must distract Pickles from his ridiculous idea."

Jenny sighed and took a deep breath. "Pickles, do you want to hear the story of how Captain Tinker gave me my scarf?"

Pickles sat up and pricked his ears. He knew this was a very special story just by how Jenny got up and stretched across the back of the sofa, looking rather like a scarf herself. He and Checkers and Edward arranged themselves in a neat pile on the cushion below, looking up at her expectantly.

"This," she began, "is how Captain Tinker tells it." She paused. "Well, I may have made a few additions."

===

Captain Tinker watched Jenny sitting in the windowsill. Jenny, in turn, was watching a fat pigeon on the sidewalk. Captain Tinker usually closed the street-side curtains at dusk, but he hated to disturb his little shy cat.

"Jenny, would you like to go outside sometimes?" said he.

Jenny's ears twitched and her tail lashed, and she put her head down on her paws. She remembered the dogs that chased her every day, until the day that Captain Tinker rescued her and brought her home.

"Perhaps not yet," Captain Tinker agreed. And he went into the kitchen to make supper. Jenny followed him and ate quickly from her bowl. Only when she was finished did she let Captain Tinker scratch her ears.

The next day, the Captain took out his knitting basket. It was getting cold, and he wanted a new hat. He rummaged through the skeins and chose grey and orange. He tucked the orange skein into the swift and began to wind.

Jenny watched the rapidly moving wool with fascination. She kept putting out her paw to bat at it. Each time, the Captain moved slightly to keep her paw from getting caught in the swift. Eventually, he found himself nearly off of his large wingback chair. He put the swift and winder carefully aside.

"Jenny, would you like some of your own?" He found a small remnant of red wool, unrolled it, and drew it along the carpet. Jenny watched it out of the corner of her eye, tail twitching. She pounced, and the Captain tugged the wool from her grasp. After a few rounds of this, he found himself getting tired, and so he left Jenny happily playing and went back to his chair.

Five minutes later, Jenny came back, red wool draped about her head, neck and shoulders, a regal small kitty cat despite her odd adornment.

Captain Tinker gently disentangled her, worrying that she might strangle in it. She took it onto the sofa and fell asleep on it.

A few days later, he noticed that Jenny was now watching the windows on the garden side, cocking her head to listen to the other cats.

"Hmmm," he thought to himself.

Later, Jenny brought him her red wool. After they played, she jumped into his lap and turned round and round, finally curling up beneath his hand, tail around nose, purring, and fell asleep.

"No more knitting for me today," the Captain thought with amusement. He took up the one book he could reach, a book of Canadian sea tales, and read until she awoke, still purring, and blinking her large yellow eyes.

"You and I must always be great friends," he told Jenny. He could feel Jenny's heart begin beating very fast, and she looked up at him with bright eyes and pricked ears.

He added gently, "I think a little cat like you should go outdoors sometimes and play. Lots of nice cats live in this garden."

Jenny twitched her tail, rubbed her head on his hand, and went toward the kitchen, tail waving.

"It will happen," the Captain said to himself.

The next day, Mrs. Goodkind came to tea, as she often did. Jenny approved of Mrs. Goodkind. She always brought a little treat and had a large soft lap.

Jenny brought Mrs. Goodkind her wool, and Mrs. Goodkind drew the strand across the carpet, laughing as Jenny caught it. Then the Captain brought out his large blue mugs and filled them with tea, and Jenny took her wool to the sofa, watching them with her big yellow eyes.

"She loves that wool," Captain Tinker said to Mrs. Goodkind, "but I worry that she will choke on it."

"Make her something she can't choke on, then," Mrs. Goodkind suggested. "Something else that is long and soft."

"A good idea," Captain Tinker agreed.

Mrs. Goodkind looked thoughtfully at Jenny. "She certainly does love that yarn."

Captain Tinker looked at Jenny as well. "I think I have an idea."

The next day, Captain Tinker went out shopping and came back with several parcels. He distracted Jenny with a smelt while he put away the other groceries, including fish for himself. Then, he took a more mysterious and floppy package to his wing chair.

The wool he pulled from his mysterious parcel was far softer and finer than the tattered scrap that had become Jenny's toy. Indeed, it was softer and finer than any other wool Captain Tinker had used before. It was sold as wool for infant sweaters, and was very difficult to find in bright red. Fortunately, the stores had laid in red and green yarn for Christmas.

He knitted the red scarf in between moments of petting Jenny, comparing her small body to his large weathered hands and the length and width of the scarf. He carefully washed and blocked the scarf.

When finished, it was sturdy enough not to rip, yet not so bulky as to press on her windpipe. He called to her.

Jenny twitched her ears, looking back at him. After a moment, she trotted over to see what treat might be in store.

The scarf delighted her. She patted it and batted it and curled up on it. When the Captain offered to tie it to her neck, she stood still and allowed it.

"There you are," the Captain told her. "Now if you go out, anyone who sees you will know you have a home, with your smart scarf. As long as you keep your scarf safe, you will be safe too."

Jenny was unsure. But she soon saw that the other cats in the garden wore collars and other decorations that distinguished them from alley cats.

"As long as I don't venture beyond the garden," she thought, "I will be safe from the dogs anyway."

===

"And the rest you know," Jenny finished.

"The Captain is a really good man," Pickles said thoughtfully. The other cats agreed. "And Mrs. Goodkind is a really good woman."

"They are great friends, too," Jenny agreed. "They have tea or lunch together nearly every day."

"And sometimes they kiss each other's cheeks when they say good-bye," Edward added.

Pickles' eyes brightened. "Humans kiss people who are special."

The clock struck three.

"Time for me to go back to work," Pickles said proudly, if a little regretfully. He licked noses with them all before getting into his small fire engine and driving away.

The sister and brothers looked at each other.

"That was unkind, Edward," Jenny said reprovingly.

"It was not." Edward appealed to Checkers. "Did I, or did I not, tell the absolute honest truth?"

"You did," Checkers admitted. "But you didn't tell him that it's no different than us licking noses."

Edward shrugged. "You never know."


End file.
